Beauty & lifestyle

liquid lipstick

Sabreen Cosmetics is a cruelty free and vegan brand started by three sisters to honor their aunt who lost her battle with cancer. Read more about their brand story in the interview I posted a few days back! Today I’d like to share with you 2 shades from their liquid matte enhancer lipstick line.

I love the packaging of these! The black box with flowers and gold detailing is a nice touch 🙂 The actual tube also looks pretty with the pink and gold top.

They offer 12 shades on their website, all of them look intense, pigmentation wise and they are some unique colors. The 2 shades they kindly sent me are Najiyyah and Laila. Both these shades are totally out of my usual comfort zone but it was so much fun testing these out! The shade Najiyyah is a dark red brown which looks awesome for a night out and is my favorite out of the two. Laila is bright neon pink on my lips and I think I might wear this on its own in the summer! I also enjoyed mixing the 2 shades.

Laila and Najiyyah swatched

From the swatches above you can see they mean business when it comes to pigmentation! On the lips, a single swipe is all you need for rich color. They dry down to a perfect matte budge proof layer within a minute after application.

I have dry lips and these don’t flake off or make my lips look like a dried prune 😀 I use a lip balm prior to using any lip product and this does not alter the formula of these guys. I am also impressed with the longevity of the matte enhancers. They stayed on quite well even after a meal..no weird flaking or bleeding.

Overall, these are quite comfortable to use and the pigmentation is amazing! Check out their website to see their other shade offerings!

I had the opportunity to get to know the lovely sisters who founded the brand Sabreen Cosmetics in honor of their late aunt who lost her fight with breast cancer. The brand strives to offer products that are safe and fun.

Starting Sabreen Cosmetics to honor your aunt is very touching! Tell us more about your journey to starting Sabreen Cosmetics

We wanted to create a brand to honor our aunt’s legacy and her love for cosmetics and health. During our research we found that there was a need for clean beauty products for women of color, and that inspired us more to build our brand.

As a black owned brand, what are some of the challenges you have faced so far in your journey?

One of the challenges was finding a manufacturer who would accommodate our needs. We faced many no’s but we never gave up. Every step of the way literally was a NO! But, through persistence we made it happen!

When did you all get interested in makeup?

Honestly, growing up we were always into beauty. We all love hair, make-up, and skin care as collectively, so it was natural for us to want to create a brand for ourselves. Our biggest inspirations come from our parents and my aunt Nabeehah Sabreen, whom our brand is named after.

Sabreen Cosmetics has some unique liquid lipstick shades. How did you go about finalizing the 12 colors currently sold on your website?

We wanted to create shades that would fit the many skin tones of women of color. We wanted to have shades that ranged from light to dark, and could accommodate the many looks that our Sabreen Queens might want to create during their day to day lives. Whether it’s for the workplace, date night or at the beach, we have a shade for you!

All the shades look like they are named after women. Are there real women behind these shade names?

Yes ALL of the names are real women. 3 of them are named after us the owners, and others family members and friends.

Taj and Kareemah are our favorites. But honestly they are all our favorites!

What advice do you have for anyone looking to start their own beauty brand?

Our advice would be to create plan and stick to it, never take NO for answer, and never be afraid to go outside the box.

What is next for Sabreen Cosmetics?

Sabreen Cosmetics will be releasing more clean beauty products in the summer and fall of 2019 for our Sabreen Queens. Please be sure to sign up for our newsletter at sabreencosmetics.com for our latest updates!

I hope you all had a chance to read my interview post (HERE) featuring the founder of Skinzi Cosmetics, Barby Espiritu. She describes her journey from being a quality engineer to starting her own liquid lipstick brand. They have beautiful matte liquid lipsticks which are specifically for those of us who suffer from dry lips. I typically do not wear liquid matte lipsticks (you can see that I have barely mentioned any on my blog) because of my dry lips. I was therefore really interested in trying out Skinzi’s liquid lipsticks. They currently offer 4 shades on their website and plan to expand their shade range soon!

Skinzi Cosmetics Liquid Lipsticks

I really like the packaging of these lipsticks! They are unique and stand out in the sea of liquid lipsticks on the market 🙂 I also think the initial colors they are offering are well thought out. They have a neutral shade : Morning Love, a mauve berry shade: Just Jazzy, a pink : Full Bloom and finally a party red: Paint the Town.

From left to right: Morning Love, Just Jazzy, Full Bloom and Paint the town

The formula which claims to be non drying lives up to this expectation! It glides on like velvet and dries down to a nice comfortable matte finish. They feel very light and comfortable on the lips. It does not highlight the fine lines on your lips nor flake off during the course of the day.

The first time I used one of the liquid lipsticks, I had slathered on a nice thick layer of lip balm..since I didn’t know what to expect with the formula..plus old habits die hard! This made the liquid lip feel a bit gooey on my lips. So wipe off your lip balm before applying these 🙂 and you’ll see how beautiful the finish is 🙂

I like the faint scent these liquid lips have! I could smell some coffee and butterscotch when I first apply it to my lips but after it dries there is no scent.

Swatches of the Skinzi liquid lipsticks

Look at those colors! Aren’t they pretty!! I enjoyed using all the 4 shades but if I had to pick one shade it will probably be Full Bloom..it reminds me of spring and is such a lovely shade on the lips.

If you plan to eat greasy food, you might need to reapply. I personally do not mind this since most comfortable lipsticks do that and I rather reapply than have a bullet proof moisture sucking lipstick 😀 Plus, these guys do not flake off but wear away in a uniform fashion leaving a nice stain..so you could go on without reapplying too.

Overall, I really enjoyed these lipsticks and I am excited to see the new shades coming soon from Skinzi!! Have you tried Skinzi Cosmetics?

I have been wanting to do a series of interviews with inspiring indie brand founders for a while now. I enjoy reading the stories behind brands and also about the people who are responsible for bringing a brand to life. Many a time, the unique stories behind a brand makes you appreciate the brand a bit more 🙂

I am happy to kick start this series with Skinzi Cosmetics! Have you been on the hunt for a liquid matte lipstick which does not flake or dry your lips out? Well you’re in luck because the founder of Skinzi Cosmetics, Barby Espiritu decided to solve that problem. A quest to find a solution to a problem most dry lip gals like myself face, resulted in a fun and cool brand! Read on to find out more about Skinzi cosmetics and Barby’s entrepreneurial journey.

Barby Espiritu, Founder of Skinzi Cosmetics

Tell us a bit about your background and your entrepreneurial journey that resulted in the founding of Skinzi Cosmetics

I’ve always loved makeup since I was a child. I started using bullet matte lipsticks in high school and was introduced years ago to my first liquid matte. I loved that most formulas were long lasting, but I disliked the flaking and drying effect, as well as the bare, feathery patches on my lips after eating greasy food. I immediately had to reapply to cover the weird rim that formed on my lips. I wanted a long-lasting formula that evenly faded like a traditional lipstick instead of flaking.

This lingering frustration, combined with an announcement of possible layoffs in a career that I love (and have been doing for almost a decade) made me rethink the skills that I could offer others.I had worked as a Quality Engineer for years when my company announced a possible layoff. After soul searching to explore my passions, cosmetics was the obvious answer. I started looking for chemists here in the United States to help me formulate a better matte lipstick than what I was used to. That’s how Skinzi got started.

Is there a story behind the name Skinzi?

I was thinking of calling the company ‘Reach Cosmetics’ but my partner said it sounded more like a grooming product for men. My partner then suggested ‘Skinzi.’ We felt it sounded hip and fun, and those two traits embody our brand.

What was the biggest obstacle you faced while bringing your brand to the market?

The biggest obstacle was finding the right team of chemists to formulate the product. I researched custom lipstick formulation. The easier path, called private labeling, would be to use an existing formula and attach my brand to it. However, I felt my customers deserved more from me, so I chose the more challenging path and decided to formulate my own matte liquid lipstick.

I cold-called and interviewed one lab after another until I found one that was FDA approved, ISO/GMP certified and licensed by the California Department of Public Health for cosmetic manufacturing. I met with them to discuss my long list of requirements for what I thought an ideal liquid matte lipstick should be. After obsessive testing and retesting, they were able to deliver on every single requirement on my list.

Favorite part of your current job as the founder of Skinzi

I enjoy engaging with our customers and hearing valuable feedback about our formula. We’ve heard a lot of positive feedback so far. I’m also a firm believer in continuous improvement. Even if we tested the heck out of our lipstick formula, if there would be any more suggestions to improve it, I would be all ears. I’m always looking for opportunities to make a better product.

What was the best and worst advice you received when you were working on bringing Skinzi Cosmetics to the market?

The best advice was to make sure we can clearly articulate the problem we’re trying to solve (flaking matte lipsticks) and communicate to our customers how our product solves that problem.
The worst advice was to look for an existing lipstick formula and just slap the Skinzi brand on it. I wanted my own custom made, proprietary formula and while it took some time to get there, it was totally worth it.

Tell us a bit more about the Beyond Beauty Project on your website

Women are multi-faceted. While our outward beauty is visible to the eye, we are not limited to physical aspects. Women in this day and age have a unique set of personal and cultural attributes.
The Beyond Beauty Project gives us a way to delve into these, as well as celebrating our strengths and understanding our challenges. We explore what it is to be modern day women. We celebrate our womanhood in ways to learn from and support each other.

Which is your favorite shade from Skinzi Cosmetics current range of lipsticks?

My favorites happen to be our best sellers. Just Jazzy is a neutral medium berry shade and Morning Love, a terracotta nude. Funny enough, our customers who purchase Just Jazzy are likely to buy Morning Love. It’s as if they were somehow meant to be paired up! 🙂

How did you go about deciding which type of shades to release first? (I love the fact that they are all everyday wearable shades with a special red thrown in!)

I was looking for a versatile range of everyday colors that would complement any skin tone. I also put myself in the shoes of my customers, recognizing their diverse lifestyles and picking shades that would be suitable, based on their typical daily activities.
I then researched the various shades, utilizing the Pantone color guide, before deciding on our final four.

What beauty trends do you think will be big this year?

Most fashion and cosmetic trends are cyclical in nature. I’m definitely seeing a lot of corals early this year and I think they’ll continue to grow in popularity.
I’m continuing to see an increased focus on vegan and cruelty-free beauty products, products that are free of parabens, phthalates and sulfates. I think this trend will continue. Consumers don’t just want to look good; they also want to know that what they’re putting on their skin is safe, responsibly manufactured and a good value.

Will there be more product launches coming up this year from Skinzi?

Absolutely. I have already hand-picked and swatched the next set of beautiful shades of our liquid matte formulas, so watch out for those!

I hope you guys enjoyed getting to know the story behind Skinzi cosmetics and the lovely founder Barby! Stay tuned for a review and swatches of the Skinzi Cosmetics matte liquid lipsticks coming soon! Meanwhile check out Skinzi on Instagram and on their website.

Hope everyone is having a great start to the new year! I wanted to include this lip product gift set in the indie beauty gift guide series I did in December, but unfortunately the package arrived after Christmas. This is not a limited edition set, so you can always check this out when you need to buy a gift for someone 🙂

Lucky Chick Cosmetics Master Piece Set

The set comes in a beautiful cardboard box, which has a mirror inside and can be reused. I love the design, it is elegant and chic! Lucky Chick is an Indie brand and their products are all rooted in art and creativity which is very much reflected in their packaging and design. They also are all about bold colors and they do have some interesting shades of lip lacquers sold individually. Check out their website HERE.

The masterpiece set which they kindly sent me, has 4 lip lacquers and 1 of their lip glazes. It retails for around 80$, and considering that each individual tube retails for 20$, it is a great way to sample some of their shades. The set comes with the following shades; Desire, Joy, Royal, Sweet and the Lip glaze in the shade Shimmery.

Closer look at the shades, from left to right: Desire, Joy, Royal, Sweet and the lip glaze in Shimmery

The lip lacquers are described as high shine , nourishing and richly pigmented and I think they have delivered on all these claims. I found them really nourishing even in the cold (my lips hate the cold) and the lacquers are pigmented!

My favorite shade is the red (Desire), which is very pigmented and very comfortable on the lips! I love that it is a 1 swipe and done red. I would suggest a lip liner though, since it did bleed a teeny tiny bit after a few hours of wear. I kind of expected that to happen since these are not matte and have a lovely comfortable creamy texture.

The other lacquer shades also have a similar consistency. They are light weight and don’t feel stringy or goopy on the lips.

Swatches from left to right: Desire, Joy, Royal, Sweet and the lip glaze in Shimmery

The bright pink shade called Joy is perfect for the summer. I found this shade to be very pigmented too. The purple shade Royal and the nude one called Sweet needed 2 swipes to achieve full color potential on the lips. I like to mix the shades in the set together to make custom colors 🙂 I rarely wear a purple shade on its own so I had a lot of fun mixing it in with the other shades. Too much layering and mixing can result in the formula getting a bit thick and goopy so don’t over do the mixing 😉

The lip glaze in Shimmery is a great grown up glitter gloss! It does not feel gritty on the lips and is very moisturizing. As seen in the swatch, the fine shimmer catches the light beautifully and looks great paired with the lacquers.

I found that all of the lip lacquers and the glaze have a floral scent to them expect the shade Desire. It is not an over powering scent but it was noticeable upon application. I would have loved all the shades to be non perfumed like Desire.

Overall, I think this a cute gift set which will make any lip junkie happy 🙂 You can always gift it to yourself too 😀 Have you tried any of the lip lacquers or glazes from Lucky Chick Cosmetics?

I am not a big fan of matte liquid lipsticks because of how dry my lips are, and hence I jumped into the matte liquid lipstick bandwagon rather cautiously . I am so jealous of all those people who can rock a matte lip without their lips looking like dried prunes. After looking around a bit I decided I should venture into the world of matte liquid lippies with the Bourjois Rouge edition velvet liquid lipsticks.

The Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet Lipstick in the shade Nudist

The Bourjois rouge edition lipsticks appealed to me primarily due to the great reviews I saw and also the word ‘velvet’ made it sound like these would be comfortable to wear. After using this guy for close to a year now, I can firmly say that I like the formula and would recommend it to anyone with dry lips 🙂

The shade Nudist, is a lovely everyday shade which has the right balance of pink and brown in my opinion. There are some really nice bright fun colors in the range in addition to 2 other nude like shades.

I always like to prime my lips with a lip balm before applying any lipstick and I did the same before applying this one. I love how smoothly the color glides onto your lips. I am able to achieve an opaque coverage in a single swipe! The applicator is the standard doe foot but it does a great job in spreading the lipstick without patches.

Standard doe foot applicator

Once applied on the lips, these do take a little bit of time to completely dry down to a velvet matte finish. Once dry, my lips are very comfortable and it is lightweight on the lips. I have not tried to apply a second coat since I get full coverage in a single swipe and hence do not know if the formula clumps up with layering.

Swatch of the shade Nudist

Bourjois claims that these can last 24 hours on the lips. Unfortunately, these don’t last long if you plan on eating and drinking a lot. I have found that the lipstick transfers slightly onto straws and the color fades significantly after a heavy meal. The fading occurs in a patchy way sometimes and that is my major pet peeve with this product.

Overall, I love the formula, the shade and the feel on the lips. I would give it a score of 4/5. If only the fading away of the liquid lipstick was more even! Also, I do think it is quite expensive (12~15$) for a drugstore product. Have you tried the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet matte liquid lipsticks? What do you think of the formula and staying power?

If you are active on social media, you would have noticed that metallic finish liquid lipsticks are the current rage. However, the intense metallic finish and the dryness associated with liquid lipsticks might not be everyone’s cup of tea (including me). I have never really been a fan of lipsticks with glitter or shimmer in them but I do have 3 drugstore lipsticks which when worn are super comfortable but have a slight metallic sheen when it catches the light.

I thought I’d share those with you guys today, incase someone is on the hunt for a drugstore lip stick that gives a muted metallic shine 🙂

Pearl finish drugstore lipsticks!

The 3 lipsticks I have in my collection are the Revlon super lustrous lipsticks in pearl finish and a Maybelline colorsensational lipstick. The formula on both these lines is excellent. The 2 Revlon lipsticks are Iced Amethyst and Wine with everything, both as mentioned before are pearl finishes. The Maybelline one which can look metallic on the lips is Ruby Star. I believe Revlon has a few more shades in the pearl finish which can give a metallic shine on the lips.

Swatches from left to right: Iced Amethyst, Ruby Star, Wine with everything

As you can see from the swatches above, the 3 lipsticks do have a muted metallic shine. I recently rediscovered these and have been enjoying the muted metallic effect on my lips. These are comfortable and they do not highlight the lines of your lips.

Have you tried these? What do you think of the metallic liquid lipstick trend?